The Most Important Appointment You’ll Ever Make

The hustle and bustle of everyday life can get exhausting and drain all the energy right out of us! Sometimes it can be downright debilitating! We have so many responsibilities pulling us in every direction. From our family life, social life, work, home repairs, doctor’s appointments, vet appointments, school and sporting activities, (do you catch my drift yet?) we feel like we just don’t have enough time to do it all!

There may be one appointment that you are forgetting to add to your schedule. It’s the most important of them all! Make an appointment with YOURSELF! This may sound a bit silly, but it is the most important appointment you’ll ever make! Remember, you are just as important as everyone else in your life. Don’t feel guilty about taking the time you need to bring yourself more peace.

Studies have shown that people who take the time to do something they enjoy, (exercising, meditation, reading, hobbies, ect) experience less stress, worry, anxiety and fatigue. Why do you think this is?

When you are able to rest your mind from all these stresses in your daily life, you are able to recharge your mind, body and spirit. Once you recharge yourself, just like batteries, you’ll be able to have new clarity for your tasks and goals and you’ll be able to refocus your energy where it is needed the most.

Clarity and calmness are both very important to keep stress down. A lot of times, stress comes when we feel overwhelmed and then we may get confused about things in our lives. By making an appointment everyday with yourself, you can gain this calmness and clarity.

Make a goal today to add YOU to your schedule! Don’t cancel your appointment! Even if it can only be ten minutes, that’s ten minutes you didn’t spend for yourself before. You will start looking forward to your most important appointment of the day!

Seven Roadblocks That Keep You

From Accomplishing Goals

So you want to set some goals! That’s fantastic! But you’re feeling apprehensive or a lot is going through your mind about why you should or shouldn’t do this or that.

Start by asking yourself some tough questions. “What could keep you from accomplishing your goal?” If you’ve already tried a goal and didn’t succeed, you may ask, “What held me back from my goal?” It is imperative that you become aware of what’s keeping you from accomplishing your goals so you can crush those obstacles!

Here are seven roadblocks that may be standing in your way:

Fear of failure

What is making you fearful? Is it going outside your comfort zone into the great unknown? Are you afraid you’ll fail? No matter what the cause, know that you’re not alone. Everyone has fears. It is hard to make the initial step over that wall of fear especially if you think you’re going to fail.

I don’t like the word failure because there is shame attached to it. Each time I’ve failed at something, I’ve also learned some very valuable insight! So failure, really isn’t failure, it is a learning experience. They only way it is true failure is if you didn’t learn something from it. If you’re passionate about your goal, don’t give up on it or yourself!

Not having a plan or being unclear on the goal

Okay, you have a goal in mind, super! Now it’s time to get clear on the goal and make a plan for it. If you don’t you will end up regretting it because you’ll lose the emotional strength to carry through to the end result. Why? Because the steps you’re taking and your end result aren’t clear. It’s like walking down a path, not knowing where it leads. No matter how much strength you have at the beginning, you will eventually become exhausted with no end in sight!

You should use a method like the one above to create your plan for the goal you’re wanting to achieve. This will help you to clarify the goal you have.

Listening to negative talk from others or yourself

Negative talk from others or even from yourself has been proven to increase stress levels and lead to depression. The five people you interact with the most, have the greatest influence on you. If there are negative influences around you, do what you can to change the company you keep. Who wants to be told they aren’t good enough to accomplish something?

If you’re speaking to yourself negatively, it will only lead to discouragement, lack of commitment, lack of confidence, procrastination and making excuses why not to move forward with a goal. Would you speak to your closest loved ones the way you speak to yourself? Be kind to yourself! Be your own best friend and not your worst enemy!

Lack of commitment

I don’t know…should I do it, should I not do it? Are you being wishy washy? If you are passionate about a goal and I mean REALLY passionate, why the heck are you being wishy washy? The only way favorable results happen is by being committed! I know it can be difficult to be committed to something, but if you are, don’t waver from it! You can use your commitment to your favor! Commitment builds momentum, keeps you optimistic and eventually leads you to the bliss of success!

Working on too many goals at once

I think I heard someone say, Prioritize! Yep, that’s the word! We all have many goals, even sometimes unknowingly. What you must do is prioritize your goals. If you don’t you’ll be lead to a ton of frustration and procrastination. You can’t accomplish a huge goal until some smaller goals are met. For instance, if your ultimate goal is to own your own business, you have to set smaller goals in place, prioritize them and then accomplish those goals first. It’s really no different than taking baby steps. We all have to start somewhere!

Living in your comfort zone

People LOVE what’s comfortable. It’s all nice, soft and cozy in your comfort zone. I love my comfort zone also! When a person steps out of their Comfy Zone, it can be scary not knowing what to expect, how things will work and so on. I’m here to tell you the truth…if you step out of that zone, over time you create a new Comfort Zone with the things, people, memories and accomplishments that you truly do want in the zone with you! This is why it is so imperative that you discover what holds you back from taking a step out of you current comfort zone to the New and Improved Comfy Zone that you want!

Procrastination and Making excuses

I’ll do it tomorrow! We’ve all heard that or even said it! We cannot let procrastination take us away from the success we get when we complete a goal. Once we complete a goal, it builds motivation, inspiration and passion for the next goal! Procrastination steals your motivation, excitement and leaves you high and dry every time!

This brings me to Procrastination’s cousin, Making Excuses! She likes to tear down all hope and discourages you from even trying. The excuses people come up with vary of course, but when you ALLOW yourself to make excuses, it opens the door for negative self-talk and kicking yourself in the butt! You then feel guilty for not taking action! The best alternative…STOP MAKING EXCUSES!